McCann Studios

That’s a good idea, that would set both the horizontal and the vertical curvature!

A top-down view of my workbench showing a strip of extruded clay next to a yellow ruler, two shorter pieces of extruded clay already curved into a U shape, and two pieces of clay fitted into the bottoms of large plastic yogurt containers to take that specific curvature.

A top-down photo of six clay handles, all shaped and ready to be fitted to dishes, nested in pairs. A wet yellow sponge keeps them damp and pliable.

Dear other potters: how do you create a consistent curve repeatedly?
Here I’m using plastic containers to curve sets of handles for baking dishes.

#McCannStudios #Pottery #HowIt’sMade

A video of a dish on the pottery wheel, large and round, being altered to be a rectangular baking dish. The clay is ivory and the potters hands are visible reshaping the dish.

How do I go from round to rectangular? Slowly! This is at 10x speed. Handmade things take time 🩵

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#McCannStudios #Pottery #ProcessVideo

A casserole dish, freshly made of clay on the pottery wheel. The shape is a soft rectangle.

A side-on view of a casserole dish, freshly made of clay on the pottery wheel. The shape is a soft rectangle.

A casserole dish, freshly made of clay on the pottery wheel, and sliced in half to view the profile. The shape is (was) a soft rectangle.

Prototyping a new shape is messy work!

#McCannStudios #Pottery #Casserole

A high speed video where I use a caulk-gun style clay extruder for the first time. You can see me problem solve a few challenges as I make lengths of extruded beige clay.

It’s the time of year where we try our new toys and tools! What has been added to your collection recently?

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#McCannStudios #Pottery

A tall vertical photo looking down on handmade ceramic egg trays, some sized to hold 12 eggs, some for 6 eggs. The colors and textures vary.

The egg trays turned out pretty well! I finally got some pictures with them all together.

Oh dear! I’m definitely cautious when I have a kiln full of big items, that’s so much work to lose at the end 😭

A large ceramic dish in the process of being glazed. A blue glaze has been applied and wiped back to highlight the crochet doily imprinted in the clay.

Will this color be too opaque and cover the crochet stitch patterns underneath? Will it smear when I glaze over it??

Oh I love this! I couldn’t agree more!

A low angle photo taken of the top shelf of my cooling kiln with the lid opened just a few inches. Cooling pottery is visible in the shadowy interior.

A low angle photo taken of the top shelf of my cooling kiln with the lid opened just a few inches. Cooling pottery is visible in the shadowy interior.

Do other potters do this? Sneak a quick picture of the top of your cooling kiln?

#McCannStudios #Pottery #Anticipation

A video of me squashing a clay pot I just created on the pottery wheel. The sides have a couple of vertical tears where I pushed the crackle effect too far! Natural sound hears my metal tools rolling on the metal wheelhead.

They can’t all be keepers!

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#McCannStudios #Pottery #Smash #ASMR

A timelapse video showing a top down view of me squeezing liquid glazes onto a bowl I made. The glazes are in small bottles, and they run down the sides of the bowl in ROYGBIV drips, then swirl and meet in the bottom of the bowl.

I think this one is going to be fun & maybe a keeper? Only time will tell!

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#McCannStudios #Pottery #Timelapse

Not too many secrets to keep in a craft that’s several millennia old. I certainly haven’t invented anything new in pottery

A freshly thrown clay vase with a crackled blue exterior showing how the clay stretched into form.

This is the blue vase from the timelapse video, still. I’m particularly pleased with the crackle pattern on this one, and will be trying to work out what causes various effects.

#McCannStudios #Pottery #Crackle

(2) After the underglaze is dried a bit with a heat gun a layer of sodium silicate goes on clear, and is also dried a bit. Finally the vase is shaped from the inside, causing the outer dried layer to crackle as it expands.

A timelapse video of a vase being thrown on the pottery wheel. It starts as a centered lump of clay, is pulled into a cylinder, is smoothed with a metal rib tool, and then bright blue underglaze is applied to the outside. (1)

A quick timelapse of a vase with sodium silicate crackles. This vase has some fierce stretch marks!

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#McCannStudios #Pottery #WheelThrownPottery

Ooh that sounds fun! My heat gun worked well for these, but a blowtorch might be quicker

I’ve literally had the jar sitting on my shelf for two years! These were my very first tries, so I’m not sure what I was waiting for 😂

A freshly thrown clay pot in the shape of a wide urn has a turquoise outer surface that is disrupted by a pattern of crackles and crevices like those in dried mud. The interior of the crackles is the warm grey color of the clay.

A freshly thrown clay pot showing a crackled outer surface. The jar of sodium silicate is visible on the right.

Both vases together, showing how the crackle pattern looks with and without added color.

For a long time I’ve wanted to try a pottery technique where you use sodium silicate to create a crackle effect on your pot. I finally tried it today!
What do you think?

#McCannStudios #Pottery

A wide photo of a 6’ folding table full of freshly bisqued pottery. The ceramics are all ivory colored and unglazed, and are stacked like the drying dishes they are.

Finally getting a bisque load fired! It’s been too long

#McCannStudios #Pottery

A photo looking down on six clay berry bowls. They are unfired, at different stages of drying, and all have different patterns of holes in the sides and bottoms.

Works in progress, I think cleaning up the holes takes more time than making the bowls!

#McCannStudios #Pottery #BerryBowl #WIP

A close view of the inner wall of a clay egg tray. There is a raised texture of grasses and cattails.

A work in progress view of a clay egg tray, on the work surface, with tools and the drape mold.

Working on an idea to make a pond themed egg tray. In case they’re duck eggs. 🦆

#McCannStudios #Pottery #Quackers

Your sugar jars have delightful character!

A sped up video of me shaping a clay slab into a tray that will hold farm fresh eggs on a countertop. I start by adding texture from a crochet doily, then invert the slab onto a dozen wooden eggs glued to a board and use my hands to shape it from flat to curved. Now it’s firming up. No sound.

I’m finally getting quicker at the egg trays. (Not this quick, but you get the idea)

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#McCannStudios #Pottery #ProcessVideo #EggTray #EggCarton